LEGO Mindstorms, one of the best robotics kits, is about to get even better!

Earlier this month LEGO unveiled the new LEGO Mindstorms EV3 at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), in Las Vegas. As technology becomes more a part of us, LEGO Mindstorms is evolving to provide us greater connectivity to our creations.

Scary Robot Snake!

Like its predecessors, LEGO Mindstorms EV3 will come with hundreds of bricks, four motors and five sensors including a new infrared sensor that will enable the robot to track a remote control. The brick has been expanded. It employs an ARM 9 central processor that can access 64 MB of RAM and 16 MB of Flash for stored programs. It also provides an SD-slot that allows one to expand the memory. Most important is its new ability for connectivity. With a new Bluetooth chip, the LEGO brick can now connect to the Android and iOS operating systems so that one can use a smart phone, an iPhone or an iPad to control the robot! There will also be a USB port that will allow connectivity via WiFi.

The operating system is a version of Linux for which LEGO will release detailed documentation as well as an SDK. This is great news for hackers.